When we recognize that we have offended God, who is all-deserving of our love, we sense the need to make things whole. Like the prodigal son in the Gospel, we long to know again the loving embrace of a forgiving father who patiently waits for each of us. Jesus himself has established the sure and certain way for us to access God’s mercy and to know that our sins are forgiven.

In his second encyclical letter, “Dives in Misericordia” (“Rich in Mercy”), published Nov. 30, 1980, our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, teaches us about the mercy of God. As the encyclical unfolds, we learn that God’s mercy is revealed to us in Christ and that all of our longing for oneness with God is restored in Jesus.

Where do we find the fullest possible revelation of God’s mercy? How is it manifest to us? These questions bring us to the chapter titled “The Paschal Mystery.” Here we are reminded that the true depth of God’s mercy is revealed in the cross and the Resurrection. The encyclical teaches us that “the paschal mystery is the culmination of this revealing and effecting of mercy, which is able to justify man, to restore justice in the sense of that salvific order which God willed from the beginning in man and, through man, in the world” (7.4).

Christ conquers sin and death

In the final commendation at a funeral Mass the celebrant tells us that “the love of Christ, which conquers all things, destroys even death itself” (funeral liturgy). Before the power of sin and death we can sometimes feel helpless. Evil seems so often to triumph.

Certainly, death awaits each of us. How can we hope to restore what is lost in our own spiritual life through our personal sin and how, even more, can we hope to restore the right balance in our world wounded by sin and its consequences in our communal and societal life? Where do we turn for the possibility of healing?

Invitation to reconciliation

It is Jesus who invites us to reconciliation with God. It is Christ, the Good Shepherd, who offers us forgiveness and the power to turn away from sin. In writing to the Corinthians, St. Paul reminds us that just as sin came into the world through Adam and Eve, so too grace and new creation come to us through Jesus Christ. Just as in Adam all people die, so in Christ all shall be brought to life — a new life in grace (cf. 1 Cor 15).

It is the faith of the church that in baptism, the sacramental action by which we are buried in the death of Christ and rise with him to a new life, all our sins are forgiven. Yet, the mercy of God is not exhausted in this one action. Our personal lives bear testimony to the countless failings that mar our relationship with God. Though we cannot be re-baptized, we can access the same loving mercy of God prepared to wash away all of our personal failure.

How is this possible? The answer to the question “How does God’s mercy continue in the world today?” brings us to Chapter 7, where we encounter the mystery of God’s mercy alive in his church today.

The sacrament of reconciliation is the story of God’s love that is always available to us. It endures even our own selfishness and limitations. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, God waits, watches and hopes for our return even when we continually walk away. Like the son in the parable, all we need to do to return to our Father is to recognize our failings, our faults, our sins and, above all else, God’s love.

The lesson of the parable of the prodigal son is two-fold — God’s immense and never-failing mercy, and the son’s contrition and humility. Without his turning back to the father he would never have experienced the father’s loving embrace.

Jesus continues to call us to holiness and to his ever-present loving forgiveness. He offers us reconciliation. But we need to ask for it. The saving, healing, restoring action that takes place in the sacrament of reconciliation — or as it is sometimes called penance or confession — is available to each of us, but we need to ask for the mercy of God and open our hearts before we can receive it.

To understand the fullness of God’s mercy, its availability to us today and the importance of the sacrament of reconciliation, we need to understand clearly the extent of Jesus’ saving action. I believe that is why our Holy Father devoted so much time in the encyclical “Dives in Misericordia” to highlighting God’s mercy at work in us.

Atonement for sin

The man Jesus Christ, who is also God’s true Son, is the only one who could offer the Father a fitting atonement for sin. Here we see the immensity of God’s saving mercy. Not only does God save us, but God brings about salvation in a generous way, in a manner that honors the humanity it saves. In Christ, God allows a human being to bring gifts worthy of salvation. St. Paul puts it this way: “For if by that one person’s transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for the many” (Rom 5:15).

Jesus became the new Passover. He is the unique and final sacrifice by which God’s saving plan was accomplished and we were saved from sin and damnation.

In God’s holy plan it was determined that the Word of God made flesh in Jesus would be the one great expiatory sacrifice that would take away the sins of the world. We continue at the celebration of every Eucharist to proclaim, before we receive the body and blood of Christ in Communion, that this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

It is in this recognition — this act of faith — that we find our forgiveness. Because Jesus willed that in the Eucharist and in the other sacraments his saving work would continue throughout history, we can avail ourselves of God’s forgiveness. Just as God sent Jesus and Jesus sent forth his apostles, so the saving mystery of the forgiveness of our sins continues because the church continues to exercise the forgiveness of God as God has so ordained.